Michigan OKs $618M in tax incentives for Detroit projects

Michigan's economic development board has awarded $618 million in tax incentives for a development project in Detroit that includes a 58-story building on the site of the iconic former J.L. Hudson department store.

The Strategic Fund board approved the package Tuesday for Bedrock Management Services, whose founder is Dan Gilbert. The project has four construction sites and includes building the tallest tower in Detroit.

Bedrock is the first developer to receive tax incentives under Michigan's "transformational" brownfield plan. Its package accounts for 38 percent of the $1 billion that can be awarded.

Economic development officials say the Detroit project will create more than 7,700 jobs upon completion in 2022.

Gov. Rick Snyder calls Bedrock's development "visionary" and says it's a model for turning old sites into "drivers of economic revival."

Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill Thursday as he sat in the gutted lobby of a 120-year-old office building in downtown Saginaw. The Berringer building has sat unused for years as a series owners have tried and failed to renovate it.